Habbo
Habbo (previously known as Habbo Hotel) is a social networking website aimed at teenagers. The website is owned and operated by Sulake Corporation. The service began in 2000 and has expanded to include 32 online communities (or "hotels"). As of June 2008 over 118 million avatars have been registered. There are an average 8 million unique visitors monthly, and 75,000 avatars are being created every day. The 100 millionth avatar was created on Habbo UK in June 2008. History Habbo stemmed from a 1999 hobby project by creative designer Sampo Karjalainen and technologist Aapo Kyrölä called Mobiles Disco for a Finnish band, a virtual chat room running on Aapo's Fuse technology. After having been contracted to design a virtual game and chat called Lumisota (Snow Wars) for a Finnish ISP, Elisa, they were contracted for another project. They developed Hotelli Kultakala (eng. Hotel Goldfish) with a small team of developers and it was launched in August 2000 on the ISP's web portal. Aapo and Sampo and Dee Edwards, an entrepreneur from the UK, wanted to create an international business based on the virtual hotel concept and worked on a plan in autumn 2000 and raised finance. By the end January 2001, Habbo Hotel had been launched in beta mode. The new hotel launched officially a few weeks afterwards, aimed at the teenage market, with marketing and payment partners in place, run from a HQ in London. It had a new credits system and community and safety features. The next hotel was launched in Switzerland a few months later, in four languages. It has since been expanded to over 31 countries in five continents, including Hotelli Kultakala in Finland which was made into a Habbo Hotel and has been invested in by venture capitalists. In May 2006, the service, along with its domain names, were changed from www.habbohotel.com (.co.uk, .com.au, etc) to www.habbo.com (.co.uk, .com.au, etc). In August 2007, Habbo's Chinese community closed down temporarily, the first time a Habbo website has closed. The challenging Chinese market and high operational costs led to the decision of closing the service. Customers in China were redirected to other Habbo communities. In December 2008, Habbo's Russian community announced it was closing in February 2009 as a result of low numbers. Those on the site with "furni" (virtual furniture that can be used to furnish rooms in the hotel that are bought with the use of Habbo Credits or Coins, that can be exchanged for real money given to Sulake) have been told they will receive credit codes for use on the USA Habbo community. In late May 2009, Habbo opened a new beta version of Habbo for some Habbos to test out before using it officially. In the new version of Habbo, the client uses Flash instead of Shockwave, and the interface of the Hotel is changed. In January 2010, it was announced that Habbo US and Habbo Canada were undergoing a merger, to be finalized in April 2010. Website Many activities and features are available on Habbo's website, that do not appear on the Hotel itself. The community section of the website features regularly updated news and events regarding the service. Recommended chat rooms, popular group pages and user pages and user interest tags are also accessible from the website. The website has seen over five different versions. Over the past three years, the website has become more involved with the hotel. Before 2006 users logged in on the hotel, now they log in via the website, which links them to the hotel. The website provides information on users' credit balance, groups, rooms and even friends. User Pages This is a feature allowing users to customise their own web page displayed on the website, colloquially named Habbo Home. The web page can be accessed from inside the hotel, and allow for user interaction with the home page of the user, as well as interaction within the Hotel. The web pages are displayed with the user's character appearance and motto. Users can customise their web page with a selection of widgets, stickers and backgrounds. Various widgets, stickers and backgrounds can be purchased with credits to add to the small default range of features. Groups Groups are special "clubs" that users can join. They have a very similar format to user pages. While users can join groups for free, a ten credit fee is required if a user would like to create their own group. In groups, owners can change the badge (a small image to symbolise the group), customize the page, give/take away admin rights (the ability to change the badge, change the page, kick members out, give/take away other members rights, etc) to members, delete/change discussion forum threads, or change the group's settings, such as the URL, the group name, group description, and even the ability to make the group exclusive or available to everybody. Users can join up to 50 groups. Many of the hotel's community pages (such as the monthly Newsie) are featured on groups. Discussion Forums Within groups, there is a discussion forum, where users can post various threads and topics. To be able to post in these forums, users will need to verify their e-mail address first. Users can post virtually anything they wish. Since many people enjoy spamming the forums, Habbo has included a "security code" system, where users must enter a randomly generated string of characters (eg. jsiqnsp) before their message can be saved, to prevent spam. Toolbar Users can also download the Habbo toolbar. The Habbo community toolbar allows users to stay on top of what is happening in Habbo, even when they are not there. Powered by Conduit, the community toolbar lets users see their messages, friends, news, and links to groups Gameplay Habbo's main feature is the "Hotel", and consists of a client made using Adobe Shockwave technologies. The Hotel can be accessed by logged-in users via a popup window on the website. When a user accesses the Hotel they are brought to a screen colloquially known as Hotel View. From this screen, members can contact one another via the Habbo Chat, which acts as the main form of communication throughout all areas of the Hotel, and use the Navigator to navigate their way to a chat room. Originally, communication was conducted through the Habbo Console, which was recently replaced by Habbo Chat and by Habbo Mail, which is accessible via the Habbo Homepage Public Rooms Public Rooms are rooms which are available to all members. They often depict scenes such as restaurants, cinemas, and dance clubs. Most Public Rooms contain automated robots which shout pre-recorded messages and can give members drinks and food items. Public rooms are designed by Sulake and are not customisable by users. Some public rooms contain team games such as BattleBall and SnowStorm. In BattleBall, teams try and capture as many squares as possible. SnowStorm is similar to a third-person shooter; players throw snowballs at each other to gain points. When Habbo updated to a new coding, these games were disabled due to not being compatible. Two public rooms contain pools in which the Wobble Squabble and Diving games are played. In Wobble Squabble, two players try to knock each other off "floaties" in a pool by pressing various button combinations. Diving is a single-player game where users can dive while performing tricks in-air; afterwards other users rate their dive. Guest Rooms Guest Rooms are rooms which users can customise to endless lengths with Habbo Furniture, wallpaper and floor patterns, and which can be purchased with credits. Users can also choose from a range of room templates that determine what shape the room is. Guest rooms can be created by any member and can be locked to allow access only to specific users or password holder. Many users create their own games in their guest rooms, which give furniture or coins as a prize. These rooms are categorized on the navigator in many categories such as "Trading", "Parties", and "Role Playing". Virtual pets can be bought and kept in Guest rooms. Users can interact with the pets, which will obey certain commands as long as they are kept happy and fed. Currency There are 2 types of currency on Habbo. Credits (or coins) which are used to buy furniture in the catologue and Pixels (free currency, you get 10 every 15 minutes) where you can buy effects and 'Noob Furniture' (the furniture you get for free when you pick a room when you register.) Credits Credits, (previously called Coins) can be purchased using a variety of different services, such as credit card, a telephone service, a Ukash card and via SMS. They can also be redeemed into Habbo Exchange, which displays the Credits as an item of virtual furniture; the furniture can then be traded among users, and redeemed back into Credits. Users can join Habbo Club (HC), which is a premium subscription which can be purchased using Credits. Features of being in Habbo Club include a badge, new selections for your avatar, new room designs, and a free piece of Habbo Club furni every month. Pixels Pixels were introduced in November 2008. Unlike credits, they are not purchased with real money, and cannot be traded in any form. They are given out when users satisfy certain conditions (such as logging in, being friendly, etc.). They can be used to purchase effects for their avatars, rent special furniture that causes "effects" in their rooms, and buy basic furniture. Managers and moderation There are 18 office branches globally operated by Sulake employees; these office branches are the workplace of the respective Habbo's senior operators - These staff generally include a "Hotel Manager", or Content Manager, who oversees the community as a whole by communicating with users through newsletters, creating competitions, and managing the content of the website; a Community Manager, who is responsible for moderation and guidance throughout the virtual community by managing in-game Moderators and a Country Manager, who manages the business side of the community such as sales, finance and administration. Office staff may also consist of customer support staff, who respond to queries sent via contact forms by users; and graphic designers who create the vast amounts of pixel imagery used both in-game and on the community's website. Automatic moderation exists in Habbo's language filter, the "Bobba Filter", which replaces offensive text with the simple word "bobba". Replacement applies to anything from mild to highly offensive words, phrases, and even websites. In this way, the filter assists in the moderation of Habbo. A feature added on February 27, 2008, enables users to turn the Bobba Filter on and off. With this feature enabled, however, users cannot report to moderators any other users who may be using offensive language. Habbo's moderation is covered by paid moderator staff who are police vetted Sulake employees. Tools utilised by moderator staff allow them to send messages to individual Habbos in the hotel, which appear as in-game popups. As well as this ability, moderator staff can also kick Habbos from any room, mute them (prevent them from speaking) and ban them from the hotel entirely. Moderators & History From August 2000, up until 31 December 2005, there existed a program for experienced members of each Habbo community to become a 'Hobba'. Hobbas were non-paid, volunteer moderators with limited powers that acted as Hotel Guides. On December 31, 2005, Sulake suspended the Hobba program due to major security issues and the rapidly growing Habbo community. It was decided that Habbo needed a stronger, more professional moderation team, that would be employees of Sulake. Sponsorship As a website geared towards teenagers, Habbo often attracts sponsorship from outside entities. This sponsorship includes visits by musicians (such as The Veronicas, Gorillaz, Skye Sweetnam, Little Birdy, Stephanie McIntosh, Operator Please, Chingy, Evermore, Avril Lavigne, Ashlee Simpson, Cole and Dylan Sprouse, and more recently David Archuleta, The Ting Tings, DJ Ironik, Alesha Dixon, The Take, Same Difference and Eoghan Quigg as well as various corporate giants. Sulake has also recently teamed up with Fremantle Media, the company that produces American Idol. Contestants that are voted out of the final 12 (final 13 this current season) were invited to the hotel for an interview following their departure from the show. American Idol furniture was also added to the hotel. Also, recently habbo has introduced Night at the Museum 2 on Habbo UK releasing the rare "Golden Tablet" exclusively. Habbo AU has recently signed up with wrestling giant WWE holding events to win merchandise and live tickets to shows, they have even recently had superstar Dave Batista as a guest to Habbo AU. As Habbo is targeted at teenagers, and 90% of its users are between the age of 13 and 18, it receives much attention from youth organisations, who educate users about many topics.